It is a Maddening World
by courtttface
Summary: Alex had been running for days when she runs into Rick and the group on the highway. After been lost and lonely for so long, she finds a strange comfort in Daryl Dixon even though the world is mad with plague and death. Story takes off season 2, episode 1. Rated M for language and future smut. I do not own The Walking Dead.
1. What Lies Ahead

'Run. Don't stop. If you stop, they'll get you.'

It seems she had been running from the dead for days. With only a hatchet to defend her, her future wasn't looking bright in this mess. But ha, whose is now a days?

She kept running, not looking back. 'That's how they always die in the movies. They look back,' she reminded herself.

"FUCK," she yelled as she tripped over a tree root. As she is gets up she sees another one coming toward her from behind the tree. She gets up as fast as she could with her hatchet in hand she drives into the dead's skull and it goes down forever this time. As she yanks her weapon from its skull, she takes a look around her seeing only a few still followed her, but they were farther away than they had been since they started chasing her. She whipped around and started running in the same direction. Running for about 200 feet she came across a highway, littered with abandoned cars.

She began going through the empty vehicles looking for any supplies she could. A bottle of aspirin, a tent, a sleeping bag, matches, some canned goods in the first car she searched. She moved to the truck right beside it, she looked down and saw blood and large tear on her upper right thigh. 'What the fuck?' She touched the bloody spot, wincing once she finally noticed how much pain she was in. She searched the pickup and grabbed a shirt from a bag she found in the backseat. She took the shirt, ripped the bottom into a long strip, then went into her backpack and pulled out a feminine pad and the aspirin she found in the car before. She took a quick look around then pulled her pants down to her knees. She took the pad pressed it against her leg and tied it with the bottom of the t-shirt. Slightly satisfied with her medical skills she pulled up her pants and popped a few aspirins.

'This works I guess' she shrugged and continued searching the pickup finding a few more supplies and clothes, when she heard a strange noise. She grabbed her hatchet from the seat, readying herself for whatever is about to come and crouched down between the back of the truck and the car behind it. The roaring got closer and closer, and she finally peaked around the car to see it was a man on a motorcycle with a crossbow strapped to his back. Not far behind him she saw a RV and an old station wagon. They were slowly moving between the abandoned cluster fuck.

'Oh thank god. People who finally aren't dead' She sighed in relief. The small convoy came to a stop when the RV started smoking. People shuffled out of the RV and the car behind it.

"I said it, didn't I say it?" An older man with grey bread said when he exited the RV, "A thousand times. Dead in the water."

"Problem, Dale?" A guy in a tan button up with black hair asked.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of—okay, that was dumb." The older man admitted after looking around him and realizing the gold mine they had hit for spare parts.

She continued studying them—she didn't want to waltz in and startle any of them or worse, get shot. As they continued talking about finding stuff among the cars, she thought of ways to go about introducing herself asking if she could tag along. She didn't mind being alone, but she knew that to survive you needed to be in a group to watch your back.

The group started to scatter looking for supplies. The old man and the sheriff stayed at the RV, the old man climbing on top to keep watch. 'Shit' she ducked back down to hide behind the car out of the view of the old man, but still facing their direction. She was so worried about not getting caught spying that she didn't notice the footsteps behind her until they stepped on a small twig. She whipped around to see a crossbow pointed directly between her eyes. She froze; she was so frightened she couldn't say anything she just looked up at the man.

And he just looked at her. She was a good looking gal, maybe around the Chinaman's age but he couldn't be for sure. She had red hair pulled loosely into a bun with pieces falling all around her face. She had on just a plain old grey t-shirt with a red flannel with a backpack strapped to her, and jeans. She was pale, but it complimented her hair and her soft blue, almost grey eyes. He couldn't stop looking at her eyes, even though they were full of fear. As the man with the crossbow and sleeveless flannel continued to examine this stranger he noticed her blood stained jeans and a makeshift bandage.

"You bit?" He asked her sternly, but in a worried manor. She shook her head "No, I fell running from the uh, zombie looking fuckers." He nodded at her response, lowered his crossbow looking up for the rest of the group-he wasn't quite sure what to do. He spotted a guy in a white tshirt and a holster around his waist and motioned him to come over. He looked at the redneck's new company with a worrisome expression.

"I found her behind the car over there," he informed the police officer "thought she was a walker."

The sheriff looked her up and down and put his hand out, "Name's Rick Grimes. What's that on your leg?"

She shook his hand while thinking how crazy she looks with a pad under her jeans. "I'm Alex." She looked at the guy who first found her and realize she didn't introduce herself. And as if he was thinking the same thing he looked up and said rather quietly, "Daryl."

"I, uh, tripped while running from the walkers? Is that what you call them?" Rick nodded. "Yeah, I was running from them tripped, and before I could examine myself I had to take one out and kept running. I came across the highway and started to get some supplies, bandaged myself up when I saw your group. I didn't mean to spy on you guys, it's just I didn't know what kind of people I was dealing with. And uh, Daryl here found me."

Rick gave her a little smirk, "Yeah, I understand not knowing anymore."

'Damn,' She thought, 'Not half bad looking group for the world ending and all.' They discussed their plans among other things when Rick sees Dale motion ahead of the RV, Rick grabs his rifle and looks through the scope to see several walkers heading their way. He tells Alex and Daryl to get down. Before she could process what was going on Daryl grabbed her, pulled them both underneath a vehicle and put his finger up to his lips to tell her to 'shush.' As she lay beside this redneck, she finally notices the shuffling of dozens of decaying corpses closing in front of them.

She looks ahead and sees the black guy from the group who had just cut his arm on a car door. She looks over to Daryl with those worried eyes of hers. He nods motions for her to stay there and goes after to rescue his injured friend. She watches as the redneck takes a walker nearing that injured man and places it on top of him, and grabs a corpse from the car beside him and hides underneath of it. Most importantly, she watches as the walkers shuffle right past the two. She signs silently to herself, 'that was close.' She throws her hand over her mouth as she remembers the heard passing her. 'SHIT. SHIT. SHIT.' is all she can think about as they go past her hiding place, she's never been so scared in her life, not even when her campsite was attacked for the first time. There was only about half a dozen then, this herd is fucking huge.

Finally, what seems to be the last of them past, but Alex doesn't get out from underneath from the van. She was waiting until that Rick or Daryl man to come tell her it's clear, but then she heard a little girl scream. She got up from underneath the van and ran towards the screams to see Rick's group standing at the guard rail.

"There's two walkers after my baby," the short hair woman cried and the skinny woman tried to console her. Alex looked around and didn't see Rick anywhere, he must have gone after the girl. Everyone gathers around to see what's happening. The skinny lady explained to everyone that the little girl, Sophia is her name, was chased into the forest by walkers and that Rick went after her.

After the skinny one explained what happened, the black hair guy in a tan shirt with a rifle looked at Alex.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked.

"I found her back when we were looking for supplies, didn't have a chance for introductions before the geeks came," Daryl explained and then left after getting something.

"I—I'm Alex. I was here looking for—for supplies."

"Are you alone?" The Asian man asked, at this point everyone is looking at Alex except for the short haired lady.

"Yeah," she nodded mournfully not looking at anywhere else but the ground. When she didn't hear anyone respond she looked up. She figured everyone got the hint when they kind of nodded or looked away continuing to worry about the little girl.

"I'm Glenn," the young Asian man finally said with a half-smile and friendly small wave.

"Hey," looking at the rest of the group awkwardly.

"Oh yeah, right," he replied. "Let's see, the older guy is Dale. The blonde is Andrea. The guy is Shane. Lori is the lady with long hair. Carol's with the short," He leaned in closer to whisper to Alex, "Carol is Sophia's mother." He stepped back a little after and looked around, "I don't know where T-Dog is, but you already know Daryl. Did you meet Rick?"

"Yeah I did. We started talking before the herd." She answered.

"Yeah, Rick's cool. He's kind of the leader around here. Oh, and that boy by Lori is Carl. He is Rick's son and Lori is his mother."

"Oh," she leans in closer to Glenn, which seemed to catch him by surprise, "I wonder if he found—" Just then she sees Rick come out of the woods and head up towards the group. Without Sophia.

"Where is she?" The frantic mother asked.

"I had to kill the walkers, I thought she had come back up here. Shane, Glenn. Where's Daryl? We gonna go find her." Rick replies sadly.

"He's was with T-Dog, I'll go get him." Alex offers and runs towards the RV to find Daryl tending to T-Dogs wound. "Hey, uh, Daryl, Rick needs you to help look for the girl."

Daryl turns around to see the new girl with her damn worried eyes. 'Is this girl ever not worrying?' He looks at T-Dog who tells him to go.

"I'll finish patching him up." She tells him and he nods, grabs his bow and takes off for the woods.

T-Dog, the guy who hurt his arm, looks up at Alex. "I'm T-Dog," he hisses.

She gives him a soft smile, "Hi T-dog. I'm Alex. I saw you cut your arm. Looked pretty bad."

He laughs slightly, "Haha yeah, it hurts like a son of a bitch." She took a closer look at his wound he was applying pressure to. 'Shit, it's pretty deep, it should be stitched.'

"I'll be right back, okay?" She runs off to go get her bag with her mediocre medical supplies. She returns shortly to the older man looking over T-Dog. "Dale right? Alex." She tells the man while sitting across from T-Dog digging in her bag.

"Nice to meet you. Do you have medical training?" He asked eagerly as she pulls out a pad, aspirin and the rest of the t-shirt she tore up earlier.

"Just the bare minimum, sir," she replies. "Do you happen have some clean water and possibly a clean towel or sewing kit, Dale?"

"Yeah, I'll go get it for you." He goes into the camper to retrieve a bottle of water and the cleanest towel he has to offer. "Sorry, no kit," he tells her as he hands the towel over to her.

'Well it's not the best, but it'll have to do,' she thought while taking the towel. "Thank you, Dale." She removes the shirt that T-Dog was holding up his wound. "This might hurt," she warns T-Dog as she pours the water on to the wound and uses the towel to clean up whatever she can. He hisses in pain, but not too badly so she continues. "It's better than alcohol. That shit burns," she chuckles trying to comfort T-Dog, who just smiles painfully at her. Dale is still watching her preform her little nurse routine. He and T-Dog look at her like she's crazy when she un-wraps the pad. "I know, I know. It looks weird, but it's rather sanitary and absorbs blood better than a glaze would, plus its adhesive so you don't have to actually tape his arm," she explained to the horrified looking men.

"Makes pretty good sense to me," Dale states. She smiles a little as she wraps torn up shirt around T-Dogs arm. She grabs the aspirin, gives him a couple and the remaining water in the bottle.

"I know, it's not the best T-Dog but it's the best I can do for you right now. I'd say take some aspirin every so often, and don't overdo yourself please."

He gives a soft smile after taking the pills "Thank you."

"Yeah, not a problem. You should probably go rest up a little to be honest. Get some food in you and plenty of water."

"Where'd you learn about first aid?" Dale asks her. He's genuinely curious about this new gal in the group, who just might have saved T-Dog.

"Oh, I was a—"She stopped as she heard somewhat familiar voices come from the woods. "Excuse me," she said while walking over to the rail. 'Well, she's at least well-mannered at the end of the world,' Dale thought while he begins to care for T-Dog.

As she walks closer she sees the voices were Glenn and Shane.

"Alright everybody, while we wait for Rick and them to return let's move some of these vehicles and gather up some more supplies," Shane ordered.

Alex ran up to Glenn, "Hey," she smiled and then spoke softer "Did you find anything?"

Glenn sighed, "Rick and Daryl are on her trail. How's T-Dog?"

"He's alright, considering. I think I'm gonna go look around here see if I can't find some supplies or food," he nods and they go off their separate ways to search for stuff and for cars to move. Looking for survival gear was always fun for Alex. Even before the world ended.

Going from car to car she started grabbing things she thought everyone might like. Couple of shirts for Carl, as many small blankets she could stuff into a duffle bag she found with a few flung around her shoulder. She came across a bunch of canned food, your everyday camping gear like Swiss army knives and lanterns, taking her small haul back to the RV, telling them to take what they need. She went back to where she was looking previously; she spotted an old jeep a few vehicles away. She opened the back hatch to find the mother lode of survival gear. EMRs filled a large duffle bag with a few gallons of water next to it, two gas cans full as they could be. Quite a few small weapons like bats and crowbars, a few large knives, another duffle bag full of ammunition. She searched everywhere looking for the guns to go with, having no luck but finding the keys. This jeep belonged to someone who knew how to survive, she figured they must not have had time to grab their things before having to abandon the jeep and precious supplies. She grabbed whatever she thought useful in the car next to the jeep, loaded it up. She had a pretty clear path back to the RV, so she got in the front seat and backed up near the RV. The group around her had stopped what they were doing to look and see. Alex hopped out of the jeep, seeing the crowd she seemed to gather she said nothing as she opened the back hatch.

"Holy shit!" Glenn looked at her with awe, "Where did you find all this?"

"Just up the road a ways, figured these would be pretty useful," she smiled as she pulled out the duffle bag pump full of ammo boxes. "I looked for some guns, only found a couple pistols in other vehicles. Also thought everyone could put a couple EMRs in their bags just in case. They taste like shit, but it'll at least be something." She grabbed the other bag and to put on the ground.

"That's not a terrible idea," the skinny Lori woman had said.

The sun was setting fast when Rick and Daryl showed up covered in blood causing Carol to have a panic attack, turned out to just be a walker they gutted. They cleaned themselves up and everyone went off to find a place to sleep for the night. Alex hadn't realized how exhausted she was, running, constantly looking over her shoulder had definitely taken a toll on her body, not to mention the throbbing in her leg from the fall earlier that day.

It was Glen's turn for guard duty on top of the RV, offering his seat inside to Alex who accepted the closest thing to a bed she had in weeks. She was out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

She woke in a cold sweat, not knowing what time it was she went out of the RV carefully avoiding stepping on the redneck that was sprawled out on the floor.

Alex had announced herself to Glen as she climbed up the ladder, "How goes it?" She smiled at Glen who was having trouble staying awake.

"Good, good. I'm good. Trouble sleeping?"

Alex looked up at the vast amount of cars surrounding them then back at her feet, "No, I'm pretty well rested. Looks like you could use some sleep though."

"Yes, thank you!" Glen quickly got up from the lawn chair on top. "If you get tired, Daryl is next for the post. And if you see anything come get us."

"Will do. Sleep tight." She told Glen as he walked down onto the ladder and into the RV he went.

She sat there in the peace and quiet looking up at the stars, thinking about life before the outbreak, how thankful she was for the redneck finding her. Occasionally she would stand up with the binoculars looking around for any signs of the walkers, thankfully having none. After a few hours, lost deep into her thoughts of the night her camp was attacked she heard a muffled grunt coming from inside the RV and then the door opened. She looked down below at the redneck that squinted up at her, made a light grunting noise and started walking towards the ladder.

"I thought it was Glenn's turn." He said once he reached the top.

She nodded, "Yeah, I couldn't go back to sleep so I told him to go and get some rest."

Daryl didn't reply verbally, just nodded his head in understanding. After a few moments of comfortable silence he spoke up quietly again. "Do uh, you want to go back to sleep? Floor's open now."

"Thanks, but if you don't mind I think I'd like to enjoy the peace for a little while longer. You can take the chair if you want." Daryl sat down and began cleaning his crossbow and arrows with a rag he pulled out of his pocket. Alex decided to lay down hands behind her head to look up at the stars that were so perfectly clear that night. Together they sat in silence, Daryl looking up every now and then for walkers.

"Where you from?" Alex asked after Daryl had wiped down his last arrow.

" 'Round here. You?"

"I'm from everywhere. Military brat, mostly the south." She looked at him and he nodded. "My friends and I were camping up near Atlanta when shit hit the fan. My brother called, told me to lay low until things calmed down. That he'd come find me when he could leave his post." Suddenly, she felt tears rolling down into her hairline; she tried to wipe them away as quickly as possible. She hated crying, especially in front of people she didn't know. She sat up and looked in the opposite direction of Daryl.

He noticed her wiping at her eyes and looking away. He looked back down at his crossbow. He wasn't sure what he should do or say to comfort the stranger. He knew how she felt, not knowing if her brother was dead or alive, just like him. Hoping, waiting for some kind of miracle that he'd find Merle again. Granted Merle wasn't his favorite person, but he was the only family Daryl had left.

He carefully placed his hand on her shoulder, "_Sorry_," Daryl finally managed to get the whisper out of his throat.

Alex looked at him, a little taken back by his concern. She stared into his blue eyes that were glued to hers. They stayed like that for only a brief moment, but what seemed to the both of them forever, finally breaking when she smiled light heartedly at him and put her hand on his. Daryl couldn't help look down at her smile, she looked even better when she smiled—even though he didn't know how that as possible. After a stolen look at his lips she looked forward, shook her head slightly and got up.

"Are you good for the rest of the night? I think I'm gonna go take the floor now." She said through a weak, forced yawn.

Daryl did a little nod, awkwardly adjusting himself to sit further back in the chair, not risking another look at Alex. She climbed down the ladder and he heard the door close lightly. After he did a quick look around, he sighed deeply. He got lost into his thoughts about Alex and those damn eyes got to him every time he looked at her. He'd never seen eyes like hers how they would change slightly from grey to blue, or even to a light green. It would be stupid of him not to notice how good-looking she was even if she was covered in blood and dirt. The way her shirt would slide up from time to time to show off the dimples on her lower back could drive a man crazy. How she could just lay on top of a broken RV surrounded by a sea of cars with a strange man and simply look up at the sky with what seemed like not a care in the world? Well that is until she started to cry of course. Daryl's thoughts shot back in forth between her eyes and their brief moment. 'Staring into her eyes in the moonlight like a fucking romance movie' he scoffed at himself.

'What the fuck was that?' Alex's thoughts wouldn't let her fall asleep as quickly as she would have liked. She kept thinking about Daryl's eyes staring into hers and good god how attractive he really was. He had been the first person to say sorry to her, he'd probably be the only person who would say it. She didn't want an apology or anything of the sort it was just so goddamn nice to hear. And his touch. She never thought a man like Daryl could make her feel so warm, safe. She wanted to kick herself for ending that moment so quickly, but he probably was just trying to be friendly. 'Damn' she sighed tossing over onto her side her thoughts finally stop in memory of his deep blue eyes causing her to drift soundly back to sleep. For the first time in weeks, she hadn't woken in a cold sweat she didn't wake at all until morning. She dreamt of Daryl embarrassingly enough.

Daryl continued to think about Alex, wondering if he had scared her off. 'Fuck,' he sighed. He kept thinking of ways to make it up to her until his mind went back to Sophia. He told himself over and over again how he needed to find her. Then he watched the sun begin to rise having peace in his mind for the first time that night. Shane had woken deciding he should get started on waking up everyone when most of the sun passed the horizon. It was going to be a long day of searching for the little girl.

When everyone was awake Rick laid out a knife set Carl had found the day before. Andrea was bitching about not having a gun, while Glen admired his new weapon. Daryl, Rick and Shane were the only ones who could carry, well, as far as anyone else knew. Alex had her own .9 mm pistol that she wasn't going to let anyone know about, after all her farther gave it to her for her 21th birthday. Some father daughters go to dances, they went to the shooting range.

After Daryl had spoken about where they would begin to look for Sophia, Carl convinced Lori and Rick that he should come along to look for her as well. Andrea began ripping poor Dale a new one once more about him taken her gun from her. Alex didn't know exactly what happened between them other than Andrea wanted to die somehow, but she slightly took Dale's side on this one. Hell, who didn't think about dying these days? It seemed as if it would almost be a relief from this world. But thinking about it and actually going through with it was completely different. Alex couldn't help but think this as they made their way down to the woods finding her place behind Glen.

They had walked for what seemed liked miles without much conversation; everyone was too worried about Sophia and walkers. Eventually they came across a tent that seemed to be empty, Daryl had inched in closer to it when Carol began calling out Sophia's name softy with no response. The redneck unzipped the door to the tent a little further, revealing the smell of a decaying body that even Alex and Glen could smell from where they stood. Daryl was the only one to go in as Rick and Shane stood outside fighting back their vomit. Alex had called out to Daryl somewhat worried about what he had found, and Carol had followed her call. A moment later Daryl was back out of the tent speaking to Carol, "It ain't her."

Lori and Alex had tried to give Carol some comfort from the news.

"What's in there?" Andrea asked.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl had responded, looking directly at Alex then the rest of the group. She had no idea who Jenner was, but she guessed it was the guy who also had Andrea thinking about 'opting' out.

Then out of nowhere they all heard church bells ringing in the distance. Everyone took off running towards the bells wondering aloud what caused the bells to go off. The group came across a white church just past the brush with its own cemetery, but no steeple for the bells. The group sprinted after Rick towards the door and had opened the door of the church to find a few walkers in the pews. Alex watched in awe as Rick, Shane and Daryl chose their targets and took them down. Everyone had shuffled their way into the church, Rick yelling for Sophia, Alex just stood in the doorway not wanting to go in. It had been quite a while she was last in one, as a matter fact she was 17, at her mother's funeral. She was lost in her memory of the funeral, how everyone cried, even her father for the first and last time she had ever seen him cry. The noise of the bells had broken her out of her trance and Daryl had sprinted past her toward the bells once more. Turned out the bells where coming from a speaker and a timer. Carol had gone back in to pray for Sophia, as did some others. Alex took her place in the doorway again in time to overhear Carol's prayer, bringing a few tears to Alex. Daryl got uncomfortable hearing Carol's prayers so he turned to walk out when he noticed Alex wiping her eyes. 'He probably thinks I'm the biggest cry baby by now,' Alex had thought when she saw the redneck looking up at her; he nodded as if to say 'You okay?' Alex nodded back at the man and he went his way out of the church.

"You okay Alex?" Glenn had asked looking at her with a caring smile on him.

"I'm fine, just praying we find her is all."

"We all are," they had turned to walk out together with Glen's arm around her shoulder in a comforting way. Even though she hadn't known Glen for more than a day, she felt comfortable with him like her little brother was here with her. But that's how things where now, you built relationships faster than ever, because you could lose that person the next day.

Everyone was waiting outside the church now awaiting the orders from the former policemen. Glen still comforting Alex as she told him the story of her mother's funeral. Daryl had managed to sneak a few glances towards Alex while he had heard the story she was telling Glen. When she had finished the jest of the story she looked over toward the redneck and caught him glancing over at her. 'Shit I probably look like some kind of perv starin' at her,' he had thought as he tried to quickly look away from her eyes.

Finally Rick and Shane had told the group to go on ahead while they stay back, Carl going with them to help look for Sophia. And the group went their separate ways. Alex had managed to stay in between Daryl and Glen while they made their way back to the highway. After a while Carol spoke up, "So this is it? This is the plan?"

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups," Daryl answered.

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea had turned her attention to Lori, "I see you have a gun."

"Why, you want it?" Lori retorted to Andrea's remark. "Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." Andrea took Lori's gun with disbelief written across her face. "All of you."

She sat next to Carol on the log, "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through and I would do anything to stop it but you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't that any of us would have gone after her the way he did..."

Alex's eyes shot up at Daryl the moment Lori had said this, she couldn't be for sure but she had a feeling Daryl would have gone after Sophia if he have had the chance Rick did.

"Or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently." Carol just kept her eyes on her feet. "Anybody?" Lori looked up at everyone to see if they thought they would have. Truth is no one could say for sure. Alex would have like to think she could have done something differently but who knows? She'll never know until she herself was in that situation and clearly everyone thought the same.

"Y'all look to him and then blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you," Lori had finally stopped to take a drink of water.

"We should keep moving," Andrea was the first to break the silence when handing the revolver Lori had given to her. And then they were off again, no one saying a word after that.

**Author's Note: Thank you all for reading the story so far and so, so much for the lovely reviews! Hope you enjoyed their little bonding moment. Who's excited for TWD to return in just 3 days?! **


	2. Bloodletting

Alex kept thinking about Lori's rant. It's probably true that half of these people wouldn't have survived without Rick at some point. To be given the responsibility of these people's lives he didn't even know before this, including her own. He had taken in a complete stranger and words would never express how grateful she'd be to Rick and his family. Her mind had been so consumed with thoughts that day that she had completely forgotten about her wound. She'd have to take a look at it when they get back to make sure it wasn't infected. They kept walking until Daryl had stopped in front of Alex, causing her to run into him and look back at Lori who had stopped worrying about the gun shot they had heard earlier. Daryl had looked down at Alex, then over to Lori as Andrea asked "Still worrying about it?"

"It was a gunshot."

Daryl was slightly worried about it too, "We all heard it."

"Why one? Why just one gunshot?" Lori's fears where taking off.

"Maybe they took down a walker," Daryl had suggested.

"Please don't patronize me," Lori was fed up with everyone at this point, "You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane. They'd do it quietly."

Carol calmly asked Daryl, "Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?"

"I bet they're just being thorough," Alex said coolly.

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway," Daryl had walked past Alex closer to everyone else. "Can't run around these woods chasing echoes."

"So what do we do?" You could see the worry written on Lori's face.

"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the R.V.," Andrea had said in an attempt to comfort Lori.

Lori had reluctantly started walking forward once more. And Andrea had apologized to Carol for what she was going through saying she knows how Carol feels.

Carol gave a small sigh, "I suppose you do. Thank you. The thought of her out here by herself, it's the not knowing that's killing me. I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't wind up like Amy." Alex shot a questioning glance at Glen who mouthed to her 'Andrea's sister.'

Andrea's face fell quickly. "Oh god. That's the worst thing I ever said."

"We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth," Andrea after shaking the memory from her mind.

"I'll tell you what it's worth—not a damn thing. It's a waste of time all this hoping and praying. We're gonna locate that little girl and she's gonna be just fine,' Daryl had told the two women. "Am I the only one Zen around here? Good lord."

This caused Lori and Alex to break out into a full blown smile and snicker as they marched onward. A ways further and Alex began to start to really feel her wound. It was doing a sort of pulsing movement in her leg.

"Hey uh, guys. We need to stop," She told the small group after looking down at her leg and sitting down on a tree stump.

"Damn we're never gonna get back to the highway if we keep stopping like this," Daryl complained.

"Sorry, it's just my leg is starting to bleed again. I just need to put a new bandage on it real quick. Could—could you two look away?" Alex was talking directly to Daryl and Glen at this point.

"Oh, uh right," Glen had said embarrassed after Daryl hit his arm gently.

Alex had gone behind a tree took down her pants once again and took the used pad off her leg. She threw her backpack onto the ground and took out some ointment and began rubbing it on the wound, wrapped it up again and popped an aspirin and pulled her pants up once more.

"Uh okay, I'm good," Glen and Daryl had turned back around and motioned everyone forward.

"We'll lose light before too long. I think we should call it," Daryl told the group when they had all slowed to a stop.

"Let's head back."

"We'll pick it up again tomorrow?" Carol had asked Lori in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, we'll find her tomorrow."

Daryl whistled and started taking off tomorrow, everyone reluctantly following. The only conversation they had was when and where they'd start looking again tomorrow.

"How much farther?" Lori asked Daryl knowing everyone was exhausted.

"Not much. Maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies," Daryl knew everyone was getting tired.

"Too bad we're not crows," Andrea caused Alex to throw out a quick laugh.

Alex stayed close behind Daryl and Glen with Carol and Lori behind her. She heard a distant "Crow flies my ass," from Andrea who had walked around the tree. All of a sudden the group heard Andrea scream. And Daryl and Glen sprinted towards Andrea has she continued to scream from the walker attacking her. All of a sudden a girl around Glen's age came in on a horse like a friggen white knight hitting the walker with a bat.

"Lori? Lori Grimes? Whoa"

"I'm Lori."

"Rick sent me. You've got to come now."

"What?"

"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've got to come now. Rick needs you. Just come." This convinced Lori, she was getting ready to get up on the horse when Daryl tried to stop her.

"Whoa whoa whoa. We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse." Lori didn't listen.

"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" the stranger said.

Glen just looked at her in disbelief, "Uh-huh."

"Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox name's Greene." And off the stranger went with Lori.

The walker hadn't been killed by her blow, he started to rise up again. "Shut up," Daryl yelled at the geek and pulls the trigger sending an arrow through its skull.

They managed to back to the highway without any more stops. Dale was waiting for them as they explained what had happened in the woods; about Carl being shot, Andrea being attacked, not finding Sophia. While everyone was discussing if they should go to the farm or not, Alex went up to T-Dog concerned about his arm.

"You've got a nasty infection, man. Did you guys manage to find antibiotics?" Alex looked up at Dale who shook his head no.

"Shit."


	3. Save the Last One

Everyone was staying at the RV waiting for Sophia to maybe come back. Dale told Glen to take Carol's Cherokee to the Greene's to get T-Dog some help. Glen had protested going, but Dale started to explain what was going on with T-Dog.

"Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics," Alex had cut off Dale.

"—because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke," Dale finished.

Daryl had gone over to his motorcycle, throwing a dirty rag at Dale carrying a huge bag of pills, "Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle."

'Wait, brother's?' Alex didn't know Daryl had a brother, where was he? Was he attacked? She figured it wasn't the time to bother anyone with questions.

"Why'd you wait till now to say anything? Got my brother's stash. Crystal. X. Don't need that. Got some kick ass pain killers," throwing the bottle to Glen, "Doxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. Its first class," throwing that bottle towards Alex. "Merle got the clap on occasion."

Alex's and Dale's faces had lit up knowing that the redneck had just saved T-Dog's life. Alex had given T-Dog a dose of both medications. "I'll go with you Glen," Alex had opened the car door to throw her bag inside.

"Are you sure?" Glen asked.

"Yeah, I want to make sure T-Dog and Carl are alright, and maybe get my leg looked at."

"Okay, just uh go tell them that you're coming with. I'll get T-Dog."

She walked away towards Dale and everyone else. "Hey, I'm gonna go with Glen make sure everything's okay."

Daryl glanced at Alex, "Maybe you should get your leg looked at too." Throwing everyone off with Daryl's concerned comment.

Alex just had a smiled a little towards Daryl who went back to cleaning his arrows. "I will thanks. I'll see you guys tomorrow morning then?"

Dale nodded and wished them all well. Glen drove off, T-Dog in the front Alex sitting in the back asking how T-Dog felt.

"Those painkillers are pretty great. Ha ha," T-Dog responded with the biggest smile Alex has seen since the outbreak. They all broke out into big laughter. Alex clutching at her sides from the pain caused by laughing so hard.

They found the mailbox with "Greene" written on the side on drove on up. It was a farm-house; it looked untouched from the world surrounding it. "Wow," Alex had spoken for all three of them.

Meanwhile, Daryl had found his spot on the floor of the RV He found his mind wondering about Sophia, Carl, T-Dog and Alex. He hoped they were all okay. Andrea had been fiddling with her gun and Carol was in the bed of the RV sobbing for her daughter. Daryl couldn't tell if he was more annoyed with his thoughts or everyone else. He got up to go look for Sophia some more, with that stupid bitch who barely knew how to put a gun back together.

T-Dog had gotten his arm stitched up by Patricia, Hershel's family friend—he owned the farm and the house.

"Looks like Merle's clap was the best thing that had happened to you." Alex and Maggie, Hershel's daughter who was the white knight on the horse earlier that day, smiled in response to the older lady's comment.

Patricia also took a look at Alex's leg in the bathroom. "Too late for stitches, seems to be healing alright. It's gonna hurt until it fully heals, but you'll live. I recommend not walkin' on it much though."

"Sounds good. Thank you so much Patricia."

"Of course, I'll go get you some clean clothes of Maggie's. Go ahead and take a shower. I'll also get you a sleeping bag and a pillow. You'll have to make do on the floor."

"Yes. Thank you again." Alex started the shower when Patricia brought a clean set of clothes for her to put on. She let the hot water warm the air in bathroom and began taking off her clothes. She pulled her hair out of the loose mess of bun. She looked at herself in the mirror, her cheeks were a little less full, and her collar bones were more prominent. She looked down at her stomach which had become mostly flat from the running and lack of big meals. She let out a deep sigh when she looked at her body. She considered herself average before all of this, and she liked her average body she was good in all the right places. 'I'm gonna look like Lori before too long,' she sighed once more.

She stepped into the hot water that poured down her skin. "Oh god," she laughed to herself. She couldn't even remember the last time she took a shower. She felt bad for taking such a long time, but she couldn't help it, it felt so good she didn't ever want to get out. After she washed hair for the third time she shut the water off grabbed the towel and begun to dry herself off. She brushed her red hair that reached her bra strap it bounced back into its natural wave and brushed her bangs to the side. She got dressed in the sweatpants and a t-shirt, pulled her hair to one side. Alex couldn't describe how amazing it was to be in something comfortable and more importantly clean. She climbed on the couch next to Glen and T-Dog waiting for Shane to return for the medical supplies for Carl, all of them hoped and prayed not to lose another one.

"Who's Merle Dixon?" Alex looking at the bottle of painkillers Daryl had given them. She knew the answer, but needed to know more. She was too nervous to ask Daryl himself.

"Daryl's brother," Glen had answered.

"What happened to him?" She looked at Glen who just now looked down at his hands and couldn't seem to find the words to explain what had really happened to Merle.

"We really don't know," he finally choked out.

T-Dog spoke up, "We were in Atlanta, getting supplies. Merle was being his regular meth head, mountain hillbilly self but he got out of control. Most likely doped up on something. He had a gun shooting at the walkers below, attracting even more attention to us. He threatened all of us when we tried to stop him. He started beating the shit out of me. Then he tried to go in with Rick, clocked him good. Rick handcuffed him on the roof. Rick and Glen had gone go get us a van so we could get out of the building that was being overrun. When they arrived, I was scared of being left but I went back to give the key to Merle, but I—I dropped the key down a pipe. I was scared, didn't know what to do I chained the door shut so the geeks couldn't get to him."

"We went back for him, but we only found a saw next to his hand," Glen finished for T-Dog.

"We were gonna go look for him around Atlanta a bit, but we got caught up in some things. We had to go back to camp, good thing we did too because it was under attack. Then we moved on," T-Dog felt he had to tell her that they tried looking for him.

Alex just sat back in shock. Daryl had no idea what had happened to his brother, just like her. Finally she squeezed out a simple "Oh." And the men shook their heads.

All of a sudden they heard a pickup pull up and everyone rushed outside to see Shane with the supplies. The man who had gone with Shane, Otis, didn't make it back. Hershel ran inside with the supplies to begin working on Carl. They all had sat outside on the porch waiting for Hershel to come back out again to tell them good news.

The porch door swung open, "He seems to have stabilized." Everyone let out a sigh of relief, Rick hugging Hershel. Lori had gone to Carl and Rick went with Hershel to tell Patricia that her husband wasn't coming back. Everyone else hung around on the porch. She couldn't imagine what Patricia was going through, losing her husband like that.

Shortly after everyone had made their way to their beds, Rick and Lori stayed in the room Carl was in, Alex taking a spot on the floor in the living room by Glen and T-Dog on the couch near them. Alex had thought more about the Dixon brothers and her brothers. It was the not knowing if they were alive that was hurting Alex, she wondered if Daryl felt the same about his brother. According to T-Dog, Merle was known to have been an asshole and to abuse drugs she was sure everyone had assumed Daryl was just like Merle. But something inside her told her that he was different. The way the he searched for Sophia she knew he wasn't like that, he cared probably more than most of them if she was being honest. That night she had a dream about Daryl carrying Sophia in his arms back to the farm.

**Author's Note: Season 4 is now here, and wow is all I have to say. As for my story here, editing the chapters now should have them posted soon. Thank you all so much for reading my story!**


	4. Cherokee Rose

Alex woke up to Maggie, Lori, Patricia and younger blonde girl cooking up some breakfast for everyone at the house. Alex rolled up her sleeping bag and made her way into the kitchen to help the girls finish up.

"Morning Alex," Maggie had greeting her with a warming smile, "This is my sister Beth."

"Nice to meet you Beth," Alex had return the warm smile she had received from Maggie, Beth gave her one too.

"You too."

"Do you guys need any help here?" Alex felt she needed to pitch in.

"I'm just about to take this to Carl, he's in and out of sleep. Could you grab the other one for Rick?" Lori had asked.

"Yeah of course," Alex grabbed the other tray on the counter and followed Lori into the room Carl and Rick were in. Both of them had been awake. Rick thanked Alex for bringing him something to eat, he still looked weak from the blood Hershel had taken from him for Carl's surgery. Lori stayed in to help Carl eat. "If you guys need anything just holler." They shook their heads as Alex left the room going back to the kitchen.

Everyone besides the Grime's had sat down at the big dining table to eat the breakfast the girls had prepared. Alex, Glenn and T-Dog had made simple conversation with the residents at the Greene farm, Shane sat quietly. Until Patricia had spoken up, "I was thinking we need a service for Otis."

"Of course we do," Hershel had put a hand on the widow's.

"We'll be more than happy to help if you would like us to, we could build a memorial," Alex had suggested.

"That'd be lovely, thank you."

After breakfast, the girls quickly cleaned up the mess, Alex changed into her jeans and a black flannel that Maggie had washed for her. Beth, Maggie, Alex, Glenn, Shane, T-Dog and Jimmy—Beth's boyfriend—all started collecting rocks outside near a tree to build the memorial for Otis. They had a pretty good pile started when they all stopped when they heard a motorcycle come up the road. It was the rest of their group.

They all walked up to the house to greet their friends. Rick and Lori had told everyone that Carl was going to be okay, sharing hugs with the survivors who just showed up.

Daryl looked at Alex who still had her hair down and was smiling when she saw him. She didn't care if he knew she was smiling at him. She was glad to see him there, she was glad to see everyone there but mostly Daryl. She could have sworn she saw the corner of Daryl's lips turn up almost into a smile at her. Daryl couldn't stop himself from smiling back at her; she had gotten even more beautiful from their short time apart.

Everyone made their way down to the tree where the memorial for Otis was started, a pile of rocks that had been built rather high. Alex took her usual spot between Glenn and Daryl. As Hershel spoke, everyone took a rock to place on top of the pile. Hershel had asked Shane to speak for Otis.

"I'm not good at it. I'm sorry."

"You were the last one with him. You shared his final moments. Please I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning." Patricia said between sobs.

Shane had made a barely audible "Okay. We were about done," He spoke up a little, "Almost out of ammo, we were down to pistols by then. I was limping, it was bad. Ankle all swollen up. 'We've got to save the boy.' See, that's what he said. He gave me his backpack. He shoved me ahead. 'Run,' he said. He said, "I'll take the rear. I'll cover you.' And when I looked back…" It was if though Shane was trying to come up with the right things to say at this point. He limped to the wheel-borrow that held the rocks, "If not for Otis, I'd never made it out alive and that goes for Carl too. It was Otis. He saved us both. And if any death had meaning, it was his." He put the rock on the pile.

Everyone started walking back to the house to go back to their day and to continue the search for Sophia, Daryl started to walk away but Alex had grabbed his elbow turning him to face her. "I could read it on your face. You don't believe Shane, do you?" She finally asked Daryl after everyone was out of hearing range.

Daryl didn't say anything, just bit on the inside of his lips.

"I don't trust him. You didn't see how he acted last night. He wasn't himself."

Daryl nodded taking in her information, "Come on," and they started walking to catch up with Rick.

At the camp, Hershel was taking to Rick, Shane, Daryl, Andrea and Alex. Maggie had come back with a map of the county, so they had a chance to know where to look for Sophia. Hershel had told Rick and Shane not to go due to Shane's ankle and Rick giving so many pints of blood.

"Guess it's just me," Daryl had spoken and walked off to go gather what he need to look for Sophia.

Shane asked about the gun training they had promised people, when Hershel told the small group that he preferred not to turn his land into "armed camp." Shane tried to argue back, but Rick cut him off to agree with Hershel. Shane and Rick threw their guns in, Alex's weapon was still pressed against her back.

Alex had noticed Daryl started to walk towards the woods from the house, Rick had asked Daryl if he'd be okay, knowing he would be. Daryl continued walking after an exchange of a few more words; he would have to walk past Alex to get the woods.

"I'm coming with you," she started walking with him.

"You'd just slow me down," Daryl said still walking off to the woods.

"That's bullshit. I can keep up with you. It'll be more productive to have more than just one person looking for her."

"Fine," he gave in seeing the sense in that. He knew he wouldn't win and he kind of wanted her to come along with him, not that he would ever admit it. She waved to catch Dale's attention and he waved her on showing her he understood she would be with Daryl.

They started walking into the woods, not speaking at first. Alex could tell Daryl was angry, she was guessing from what Rick had said about him being off the hook for looking for Sophia.

"How'd you learn to track?" She was desperate for conversation after the second mile.

He scoffed at her, "Gotta eat."

"Who taught you I mean."

"Are we just gonna talk all day or are we gonna look for Sophia?"

"We are looking, I'm just curious is all."

He lightened up when he heard her sigh, "Merle mostly, my brother, when he wasn't in juvy. When my dad was sober enough he'd take us hunting."

"My dad took me hunting a lot. I remember my first dear, got it before he or my brothers did. They were so jealous that their sister had beaten them at something," She smiled in the memory.

"Did you gut it yourself?"

"Of course I did, it's not yours if you don't," She said proudly and Daryl nodded with an impressed look on his face.

"I heard about your brother, I'm sorry. I know what it's like not knowing," Daryl had stopped and turned his attention towards her, she followed his actions.

He chewed on his lip, fighting back his anger from her comment. He looked down, sighed and looked at her again. He knew she didn't mean any harm and that she really did understand what he was going through.

"It's fine. He'll come around."

She just nodded her head, she knew he didn't want to talk about it and she wanted to kick herself. He moved his head to motion they should keep going. Alex had taken a step to follow Daryl, when she tripped from a tree root she didn't notice in time. _"Shit,"_ she yelled as she started to fall. She braced herself for the fall, but instead something had caught her. She opened her eyes, she was being held by Daryl. Her hand was on his arms, man no wonder why he was sleeveless that crossbow was really worked its magic on him. One of his hands was on her arm, near her elbow, and the other on her lower back. She raised her head from his arm and looked at him. He was chewing on his lip again, this time nervously. She wasn't going to ruin the moment this time. They stood there, looking into each other's eyes. Alex had gotten a little shiver down her spine, but in the best way imaginable. She wouldn't admit it to herself, but she even had butterflies in pit of her stomach. And they stayed like that. Alex wanted to just get tilt her head towards him and kiss him. She was about to, when they heard a twig snap behind them. Daryl whipped around grabbed his crossbow from behind him and moved to get in front of Alex all before she had time to realized that a walker had closed in on them. Daryl pull the trigger of his crossbow and down the geek went.

"You okay?" He turned to face Alex once more.

"Yeah—yeah. Just startled a little," which she was, she was mostly pissed that a walker had stopped her from acting out just moments before.

"Come on, we better keep walking."

Daryl had led the way like before, Alex following close behind him. Her head lost in her thoughts. Daryl tried to keep his head on the task, but all he wanted to do was to think about Alex's lips. He wanted to feel them against his, to taste them. He snapped his thoughts back as they had come across a clearing, an abandoned farm-house across the yard. Daryl prepared his weapon once more as they walked towards the house.

Daryl stopped before the steps of the house, "Stay here, I'll come get you." And for once she didn't argue, Alex just nodded her head and watched as Daryl entered the house. She watched from the door as he made his way further into the house looking for walkers and Sophia, disappearing as he went into another room. He called out to her and she found him looking at a pantry with a makeshift bed in it.

"Do you think its Sophia?" She asked him.

"Bed couldn't have fit someone tall, it had to be her."

She nodded, and followed Daryl out the back door of the house. He yelled her name, hoping to get a response. He walked towards a flower.

"What's that?" Alex never thought a flower would catch Daryl Dixon's interest. He bent down to pick it.

"It's a Cherokee Rose. It's believed it grows from the Cherokee mothers' tears after they lost their children on the Trail of Tears to help them grieving, give 'em hope." He got back up.

"Wow, I didn't know you knew so much about flowers," She laughed.

Daryl let out a small laugh too, "Shut up," he said between his small fit of laughter.

This made her laugh even harder; she bent over clutching her side, Daryl laughing with her.

"Really though, it's very sweet that you know that. Gonna give it to Carol?" She managed to get out after her laughter.

Daryl nodded and twirled the flower in his hands awkwardly, the corner of his lip still curved up. He looked around for something to put it in, found a glass bottle lying near them. "We should probably head back now."

"Yeah, let's go," Alex couldn't wipe the smile of her face. And they walked back to farm.

They had fallen back into silence as they walked, but this time it was more comfortable than before. Seeing Daryl laugh made Alex feel as if she had broken down a wall of his and she was happy she was able to get him to laugh even in the shitty world they lived in now.

When they reached the farm, Daryl told Alex he was going to go talk to Carol. Alex decided to go set up her tent now that the whole group was here. And they went their separate ways.

Alex had finish setting up her tent, putting her belongings inside. All she had with her was a sleeping bag, pillow, some clothes, couple of knives, a hatchet, her .9, almost a full box of ammo, MRE's, lantern, flashlight, lighters, half a pack of Marlboro's, and a picture frame of her family. It had her mother, father, brothers and her, everyone looked so happy in the photo with their ugly sweaters for a Christmas party they had that year. She stood the frame up that had crack through the glass and sat it next to her makeshift bed, smiling down at it. Memories flooded her brain of that party. She was 16, her brother David was 19 back on leave for Christmas, and their youngest brother Michael turned 14 two weeks before the photo was taken. She and David were incredibly close, she was somewhat angry at him for leaving her to join the army. They had just made up moments before the picture. It was the last Christmas they had with their mother. Tears were about to fall when she heard someone attempting to knock on her tent. She quickly wiped them away and opened up to see Daryl standing there with two plates of food in his hand. "Hungry?"

"Yes, thank you," She climbed from her tent to join Daryl by the fire taking her plate from him. They seemed to be alone; everyone was off doing their own things or in the house. They ate their food occasionally look up from their plates at each other. When they finished they sat back to enjoy the silence and each other's company until Glenn walked past them smiling at Alex and walked into the RV.

Something about Glenn's smile had made Alex feel awkward, Alex got up started walking to her tent Daryl not taking his eyes off of her, "G'night, Daryl," with a smile.

He nodded back at her as his own way of saying "good night."

**Author's Note: A special thank you to NanamiYatsumaki, jeanf, KaneCenaZombie12 and the others for the reviews. Seriously, you guys are so awesome. To all who favorite and follow my story, thank you so much! I know I told you to look for a few updates, but I've been working on making this story better for you all so it's taking a little longer than I would have liked. Either way I hope you guys are enjoying the story as much as I am writing it! (:**


	5. Chupacabra

**Author's Note: there may be little more tension between Daryl and Alex in this chapter, aka smut. You've been warned and enjoy(;**

It was the next morning when Alex had been woken by the smell of cooking eggs and chatter outside her tent. She sat up to stretch; she was getting the best sleep of her life since being at the farm. She looked over at her family photo smiled towards them and got up to get dressed. It was going to be a hot day today, she could tell from the sweat forming on her forehead. She grabbed the black sports bra from the pile of clothes and slipped it over her head. She grabbed her the white loose-fitting tank top and a pair of jeans that were distressed from wearing them so much, and a pair of worn out brown combat boots that belonged to her younger brother. Her hair was still down and it a wild curly mess, she attempted to tame it, but just threw it over one of her shoulder instead.

She walked out of her tent everyone still eating their breakfast Carol had made for them. Carol handed Alex a plate, "Thanks, you should have woke me I could've help with breakfast."

"Actually I was gonna do some laundry today, really appreciate it if you could help. I'm letting Lori sleep in a bit," Carol had stated.

"Yeah absolutely," Alex sat down in the lawn chair across from Dixon. He was wearing his typical button down, with the sleeves tore off. Daryl noticed her sit down with her breakfast. He definitely noticed her low-cut tank top, and on her left shoulder there was a tattoo. A large tattoo covering her whole shoulder of several purple flowers, with a light blue surrounding the cluster and vines with leaves every so often. 'And she gave me shit about flowers,' Daryl smiled smugly to himself. Alex had gotten up to get a drink and he noticed that on the back side of the tattoo, underneath the flowers there was some writing, he squinted but couldn't make it out. He never figured her for the type for tattoos. He got up to grab his supplies to go out to look for Sophia again.

Alex helped the women clean up the dishes and started going around collecting everyone's laundry. She grabbed laundry from Dale, Glenn, Shane, Andrea, T-Dog, and her basket became too full for another load so she dropped it off to Carol who started on her own first. She then went into her tent and threw her dirty clothes in the basket and then went to the tent behind hers. She gave a little knock on the tent and said "Laundry." The zipper came undone and Daryl's face was looking up at hers with a look like "What do you want?" He was just in a tank top, with another shirt in his hands. She couldn't help notice the scar across his chest.

"Sor—Sorry. We're doing' laundry, thought yours could use it the most," she winked to show him she was joking.

"Well haha, aren't you fucking hilarious?" He scoffed trying to look angry and unzipped the door more and grabbed his dirty clothes adding it on top of hers.

"You gonna go look again today?" She asked when he stepped out of his tent swinging his crossbow back on him.

He nodded in response walking at the same pace as Alex.

"Well, I'll be stuck here doing some laundry so just be careful okay?" Alex knew she needed to help Carol with laundry, she needed to pull her own weight, but she wanted to look for Sophia.

He nodded again brushed his arm slightly on her upper arm as he walked behind her and whispered, "You too."

Alex had dropped off the last of the laundry and started helping Carol hang the clothes. Lori had woken up; Alex couldn't bring herself to pay much attention to the conversation Lori and Carol had started.

The guys and Andrea had gathered around the station wagon to discuss where they were looking today. Alex was still hanging clothes when she listened in on them. Shane said something about he doesn't think it was Sophia in the house they found yesterday.

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high," Daryl couldn't think of anyone else but Sophia who was in that cupboard.

Rick said how maybe they'd pick up her trail again.

"Ain't no maybe about it. I'm gonna pick up a horse. Head up this ridge right here, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot her."

"Good idea," T-dog had said. "Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too."

"Cupacarbra?" Rick didn't even try to hide the smile on his face.

"You never heard this?" Dale popped up with the bag of guns, "Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra."

Beth's boyfriend, Jimmy, laughed at the story.

"What are you braying at, jackass?" Daryl didn't take kindly to being laughed at; he knew what he saw that night.

"You believe in a blood-sucking dog?"

"You believe dead people walking around?" Daryl questioned Rick right back. Jimmy reached for the rifle lying down on the hood.

"Hey hey. Ever fire one before?" Rick asked the boy.

"Well, if I'm going out, I want one."

"Yeah, and people in hell want slurpees," Daryl threw on his crossbow again and headed towards the horse stable, nodding at Alex who smiled at him as he walked by.

She went back to work with the laundry with Carol and Lori.

"So Alex, where you from?" Lori had asked the younger girl.

"I was living in Atlanta at the time. My friends and I decided to go on a camping trip, right around the time the first reports were coming in, we didn't think much of it at first."

"Good thing you did. What were you doing while in Atlanta?" Carol probed.

"Studied criminal justice at Georgia State, graduated last May. Got a job working at the prison."

"Wow. No offense, I just would have never pegged you for the officer type," the men in Lori's life were officer's she could always tell when someone shared a similar occupation to her husband and Shane.

"Ha, yeah. A lot of people said that. I wanted to go to college, but I also wanted to carry gun without being in the military. I was going to work there for a few years, then maybe move to a smaller town get my toes wet as a police officer."

The women went about their duties, making casual conversation.

When everyone's laundry was dry and folded, Alex returned them to their rightful owner. She dropped off her own, and underneath hers was Daryl's laundry. She didn't feel right about going into Daryl's tent without his permission, so she dropped his off at hers and would grab it for him when he returned from looking for Sophia. I hope he comes back soon, it was about midday and she was starting to worry even though it was Daryl.

She kept her mind busy helping anyone who had asked her, she even took a shift on top of the RV looking out. She went and talked to Carl while he was awake, they played cards to try occupying their boredom. After a long round of a game of war, which Carl had won, she bid him farewell and went on to help prepare the supper the girls had planned for Hershel's family. Alex couldn't cook to save her life, unless it was ramen noodles from a package. The girls had sent her out of the kitchen after she had set the tables for everyone. She decided to go outside, she noticed T-Dog sitting near the in the shade near the RV and decided to chat with him. "Hey man, how you feeling?"

"I'm good. It hurts from time to time, itches like a son of a bitch but all in all not bad," he replied with a smile.

"Good, I'm glad you're doing okay I was really worr—"Alex was caught off by Andrea yelling "Walker."

Alex jumped up placed a hand on her .9 that was in underneath her shirt pressed against her back while Rick came up asking if it was just one.

"I bet I can nail it from here," she replied.

"No no, Andrea. Put the gun down."

"You'd best let us handle this." Shane said.

"Shane, hold up. Hershel wants to deal with walkers."

"What for, man? We got it covered."

Rick ran into his the RV for his gun and sprinted towards the walker. Andrea aimed the rifle at the walker.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing Andrea?" Alex yelled.

"I can get it," Andrea said getting down on her stomach.

"Andrea don't," Dale tried reasoning with her.

"Back off Dale," taking her aim once more.

"Let them handle it Andrea!" Alex begged the stubborn woman.

Next thing Alex knew there was a loud bang, followed by a horrible ringing in her ears. The thing near the tree line dropped to the ground and Rick yelled _"NO!"_ once it fell.

Andrea smiled in satisfaction that she hit her target, barely paying attention to Rick's cries.

Alex sprinted towards them, she knew it wasn't a walker and god she prayed it wasn't Daryl, as she got closer she recognized that it was Daryl. Shane and Rick got him to his feet, she was still unable to make out if he was alive or not, she just stood there she didn't know what to do.

Andrea ran past Alex, "Oh my god. Is he dead?"

"Unconscious. You just grazed him," Rick had said, calming Alex down to the point she could walk with everyone.

"But look at him. What the hell happened? He's wearing ears," Glenn pointed to the string of ears around Daryl's neck.

"Let's keep that to ourselves," as Rick pulled off the string and put it in his pocket.

"Guys, isn't this Sophia's?" T-Dog had picked up a doll that had fallen out of Daryl's unconscious possession.

They all had stopped at once to look at the object; it must have been Sophia's from the way everyone looked at it.

"Come on you have to get him to Hershel!" Alex had cried out.

They made it into the house, Rick and Shane placed Daryl on the bed as Hershel began bandaging up his wounds. Alex sat in the hallway waiting, still scared as hell. She has never wanted to bash someone's head in before this. How could Andrea be so fucking stupid? Alex was raging, not able to keep still. She began pacing around in the hall.

Lori had joined her in the hallway to check on their fellow survivor, and Rick and Shane came out of the bedroom. Rick looking at Alex and then his wife, "He's alright." Shane and Rick talked about calling off the search for Sophia, Rick not letting up and walked away. Shane and Lori began arguing quietly and stepped away. Alex didn't want to pay attention to any of their discussions; all she worried about was Daryl. Alex let out a sigh of relief as she knocked on the door; she didn't bother waiting for a reply and stepped in. She saw Daryl there with gauze around his head and around his side, the deep scars on his back.

Hershel looked up at Alex and excused himself out of the room.

"Jesus Christ Dixon. I told you to be safe."

He just scoffed at her, not wanting to look into her sad eyes. He didn't like the idea of her being upset because of something he had done. She walked over to the other side of the room so that he could look at her. Alex sat down on the bed, looking at Daryl, his eyes finally met with hers.

"I'm glad you're okay. When I saw you go down I—," she just looked down and shook her head.

"I'm alright. Andrea can't aim for shit," he smiled up at her, trying to make her feel better.

She snorted. She looked at him and sighed in relief again. "You're dirtier than normal," she laughed again. "I'll go get you a towel."

He nodded and she grabbed a large bowl Hershel was using, went to the kitchen filled it up with warm, clean water and took a towel with her to where Daryl was. Alex placed the bowl next to the bed and helped him sit up on the bed. Alex grabbed the towel and dunked it in the water, rang it out and pressed it to his shoulder and across his chest taking the dirt and blood off.

"I can clean myself," he huffed.

"Shut up, let me do this. You'll screw up your bandages if I let you do it yourself," she said through her smile. She ran over the right side of his chest and revealed a tattoo that read "Norman." Alex smiled at the tattoo of his she discovered.

She continued washing his torso, and fell silent. "Do you want me to?" she pointed at his back. He bit his lip very nervously, and had a barely noticeable nod. She dipped the towel into the water, rang it out once more and moved to his back. She very carefully began washing away the dirt, being even gentler when she came across his scars. She could feel him chewing on his lips as she went over them; she knew his scars weren't something he was comfortable with when it came to other people.

She tossed the towel carefully into the bowl, Daryl not taking his eyes off his hands placed in his lap. She took her arms and carefully wrapped them around his back, her hands on his chest. Daryl whipped his head around to look at her, her eyes were intense, full of warmth and compassion. Her eyes never left his as she replaced her chin on his shoulder with her lips. Daryl shot her a bewildered looked. Not saying anything, she carefully unwrapped herself and stood up, grabbing the towel again she sat in front of him once more, took the towel and began washing his neck, she wiped away all the blood from his face and went to his cheeks. She set the cloth back down in the bowl and placed her hands to his face once more. Daryl's eyes never left her, not even for a second, his mind was filled with questions and desire. Before Alex could stop herself she leaned into his lips, Daryl had pulled away just for a second to look at the woman who had just kissed him. Could a woman like this really want a guy like him? He didn't care to think about it any longer—as long as she was here he was going to take advantage of it. She was beginning to feel reject, then he wrapped his hands around her waist and the other hand cupped her cheek softly and pulled her lips into his. Her hand found the back of his head and pulled him closer towards her. He traced his tongue around the bottom of her lips slightly as if for an invitation to come in, and she gladly parted her lips for his tongue to come inside. Their mouths seemed to become hungrier and hungrier for each other, never parting even for them to breathe. Alex's hands were still on the back Daryl's head as she lied back on the bed pulling him on top of her. When she pulled him on top of her his erection grew rapidly and he began slowly moving against her body, causing her to moan into his mouth. Her hands released his head and traveled to his back where her nails dug in causing something to snap inside of him and his paced quickened, grinding against Alex as hard as their bodies would allow. Each moan that had escaped from her throat drove Daryl more and more mad with desire. His hand went up her shirt, pulled her bra up to release her large breasts into his strong hand. Daryl broke their kiss for his teeth to move to her neck, each time he bit her, her nails dug into his shoulders hard. While doing so his hand managed to lift her shirt up high enough to expose her breast to the open air, and his lips replaced his hand on her hardened nipples. He drove her near the edge with his rough tongue twirls and biting, she let out a loud moan into the air around them. _"Shh,"_ he lifted his head from her body—she nodded as she bit her lip trying to keep herself quiet. Daryl smirked at her struggling to keep quiet from his touch, his lips found their way back to hers for a few moments until he moved his hand from the bed down the side of her body, and across her stomach where he stopped when he reached the fabric of her jeans. Teasingly he traced his fingers underneath her jeans, watching her intensely he waited for her to beg him to continue. She squirmed under Daryl with his tantalizing touch; her lips parted to whisper into his hear "Don't stop." Her words made him release a groan of his own and he unbuttoned her jeans, his hand began to work their way between her thighs when there was a soft knock on the door.

_"Shit,"_ he mumbled under his breath. Alex's eyes widened as Daryl quickly pulled away from her lips and pushed himself off of her. "Hold on," he grumbled to whoever was at the door as he lifted the white sheet to cover himself. Alex got up, after adjusting her clothes and walked to the door, she looked over at Daryl who nodded for her to open it once he pulled the sheets over him. In the doorway stood Carol with a tray of food, "I'll leave you guys be," Alex said leaving the room to go get a plate for herself.

It all happened so quickly she couldn't wrap her mind on what had just happened. All she really knew was that her body was still aching for him to touch her. She tried to hide her smile as she walked past Glenn. "How's he doing?"

"He's, uh, he's good," she grabbed a dinner roll off the table that the girls already had begun clearing it off. She didn't want to look at Glenn as if he would be able to read her mind and know what had just happened. He must have taken that as concern and he placed his hand on her shoulder, "He's tough, Alex," and Glenn walked away. She finished her roll and began walking back to the room Daryl was in. She lingered in the hall, giving Carol and him privacy. She met Carol in the hallway moments later, "Make sure he eats," and then Carol walked off into the kitchen.

Alex carefully made her way into his room, knocked lightly on the door frame. He didn't turn around to face her. She didn't say anything; she didn't even know what to say to the man who just had his tongue halfway down her throat. Finally, he looked up at her and quickly looked away, "You should get some sleep," he said cold.

"Uh, yeah, you too. Night Daryl," she placed a hand on his shoulder softly and felt him twitch underneath her. She turned around to leave, quietly shutting the door behind her.

That night, she didn't sleep much. She tossed and turned, trying to think of why Daryl didn't want to see her. Had Carol figured out what they were doing and Daryl was ashamed? She hated herself for the rest of the night, so embarrassed she didn't want to think about seeing Daryl the next day for the first time since she met him.

**Author's Note: What'd you guys think? It was my first shot at some smutty goodness. Let me know! I would really appreciate some feedback on how you guys think Daryl may react the next day when running into Alex. **


	6. Secrets

Alex had jolted awake early the next morning; she didn't need a mirror to know there were large bags under her eyes. She sighed as she got up to get dressed, she knew that she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. She went over to the clean clothes in her tent; next to hers was Daryl's. _"Shit,"_ she let out a deep sigh; she knew she'd have to see him today to return his clothes. She wanted to kick herself for not putting his clothes in her tent instead of his own. She put on her jeans, grey tank top and her red flannel, pulled her hair into a loose bun and pieces fell out as she pulled on her socks and boots. Sighing for the last time, she picked up Dixon's laundry and walked out. Rick and T-Dog where helping Daryl into his tent as she walked out of hers. She stood there and waited for the two men to step out again, they nodded at her as they walked past. Even though the door was open, she knocked on the tent to announce her presence. Daryl looked up and back down at his arrow. She stepped inside, looking around awkwardly. "I got your laundry."

He nodded and motioned his hand towards the bag on the other side of the tent, "You can just leave it over there."

She placed his belongings next to his bag; she grabbed the sleeveless shirt on the pile and walked over to Daryl. "Here, put this on," she handed him over his shirt. He took it and tried to sit up, pain from his side wound was written on his face. "Stop, let me help." She sat down on his cot, and carefully pulled him up, she took the shirt and put the arm on his bad side in first and held it up for him to put his other arm in.

"Thanks," he mumbled laying back down buttoning the shirt up. She nodded, she knew he didn't want to feel useless but she didn't like to watch him struggle. She just looked at him, not wanting to leave but she couldn't find an excuse to stay.

"I'll go get you something to eat," she walked out to find Carol and Lori beside the fire cooking up breakfast before most people were up.

Carol looked up at Alex, "Good morning."

"Morning," she smiled back at the two women, "Can I get a plate for Daryl?"

" 'Course. How's he doing?" Carol handed her a plate of eggs with a mug of water.

"He seems to be alright. Thank you." Alex walked back into Daryl's tent.

"Daryl, here," she handed him over the plate of eggs and he nodded as a thank you. "I guess if you need anything just holler, I'll be around, I'll hear you." She went to turn around and walk out, but Daryl grabbed her hand before she could take a step.

She just looked at the hand holding on to her when Daryl spoke up not looking at her, "You can stay if you wanna." She thought about it for a good minute and then took a seat on the floor next to Daryl's cot. Daryl ate as she twirled her fingers in her lap and failed miserably putting the pieces of hair back into her bun. He finished eating and put the plate on his lap. "What's your tattoo say?"

She looked up at him, "It's my great grandma's handwriting, 'Lots of Love.'"

"Sorry. And the flowers?"

"They're clematises. She was known around town for growin' purple ones."

He gave her a weak, apologetic smile. She looked down at his hand and noticed a small star on his hand by his thumb.

"You have few don't you? I noticed the demons on your back and arm, the one on your chest. What's this one?" She grabbed his hand and pointed to the tiny star.

"Being young, drunk, having a friend with a tattoo gun. This one same story," he turned his arm around to show her the small heart on his wrist. "Ah hell, this one too," he pulled his shirt down to show another small tattoo of a cross on his collarbone.

She laughed got to her feet pulled her shirt up a little and unbuttoned her pants, Daryl looked up her with eagerness in his eyes, "Calm down," she laughed even harder. She pulled her the side of her pants down revealing a tattoo on her hip of a black paw print. "College, freshman year, way too much to drink. Woke up the next morning with a bandage on my hip not remembering a thing, I couldn't wear pants for a week while it was healing." Daryl snorted at her story. She quickly pulled up her pants and buttoned them, and found her place on the floor once more.

"I think I'm gonna go get some food, do you want anything else?" asking as she stood up to walk out.

"Nah, I'm good," He took his arrow and began poking holes in his tent's screen.

Alex almost ran Andrea over on her way out; she just glared at her trying her hardest not to knock her out. Andrea went into Daryl's tent, Alex could only hope for Andrea's sake it was to apologize. She grabbed some jerky and two peaches; one for Daryl, from the basket Glenn was passing around and walked back to Daryl's tent once she saw Andrea leave. "Hey, I got you some," she passed over the peach and jerky to Daryl, "For later if you want. I'm gonna go with the group, shoot some guns. Will you be alright?" He nodded. "Okay, Dale and Glenn are around so I'll come see you when I get back." And he nodded once more, she smiled at Daryl and left to join the others for gun practice.

She hopped in the back seat of Shane's new vehicle, T-Dog in the front, Shane driving. "You know how to shoot?" Shane asked Alex on their way to the makeshift range.

"Yeah, just need to get some practice," Alex really just wanted to shoot, she was feeling rusty. She never risked shooting her gun with walkers, unless she was cornered.

"Huh," Shane said in a condescending tone.

They drove the rest of the way in silence. Once they arrived, everyone pitched in to set up the cans to aim at. Everyone lined up side by side, with some elbow room, to begin shooting. Alex took the nine out from under her shirt. Alex never missed her target, and god it felt good. The weight of her gun had always comforted her, especially with the end of days upon her. Not wanting to waste too much ammo, she shot of her gun five times. Then she stepped over to Beth to help her aim, "Alright. That notch here," Alex pointed to the notch nearest to the handle, "that's called a rear sight. You don't want to focus on that you want to look through it to your front sight. You need to focus on that after you aim. Alright once you focus on that shoot." Beth had followed Alex's instructions and hit the can dead center. With her face lit up, Beth thanked Alex for showing her how to aim right and shot off a few more times. She high-fived Carl when he got his targets. Shane decided Andrea was good enough to go to the 'advance' gun training; Alex scoffed but was glad Shane wasn't going to be around for a while. When shooting practice was done, Alex caught a ride with Rick and them in the back of their station wagon.

She was happy to arrive back at the farm. She popped her head into Daryl's tent; she was not very surprised that he was gone. It was Daryl; he wouldn't just lie in bed all day. So she went into the house after grabbing her bag, asked Maggie if it would be okay if she took a shower wanting to clean her wound again. Maggie grabbed her towel and let her find her way to the shower.

Once again she let the warm water pour over her body, washing away her sweat and the dirt that seemed to be layered on her skin. She didn't shower as long as the last time, she wanted to get back outside and make sure Daryl was still doing okay. She reluctantly shut the water off and dried off. Putting on clean underwear, her sports bra, sweat pants and old cut off Army shirt, she quickly brushed her mane and went out the door to thank Maggie once again for letting her shower. She walked outside to see the group gather around the fire to discuss their day and eat their meals. Daryl was also with the group, eating. She grabbed the open chair next to Glenn and sat down as Dale handed her a plate of food. She thanked Dale and began to eat. She noticed that something off with Glenn, she didn't want to probe, thinking it must have something to do with Maggie. It didn't take a genius to figure out that something was going on with them.

At dusk everyone made their way to their bed. Daryl had walked past Alex to his tent she gave a small smile and he nodded at her with the tiny smile of his own.

'Considering everything today was a good day,' Alex thought as she fell asleep when she crawled into her sleeping bag.

**AN: Sorry for the wait everyone! Editing the next chapter tonight and hopefully post it late tonight. Thank you so much for the reviews, follows and favorites. You guys are all awesome!**


	7. Pretty Much Dead Already

The next morning, everyone made their way out of their tents. Alex had exchanged her sweat pants for jeans, left her cut off on and combed through her hair with her fingers and went outside to meet the group for breakfast that Carol had been cooking. Alex thanked Carol for the breakfast and took a seat next to Daryl, she felt as if though it was going to be another good day.

Then Glenn stood up from his chair, walked around so everyone could see him clearly, "Um guys." Everyone had continued going about their business, not paying him much mind. He sighed, "So, the barn is full of walkers." Everyone's heads shot up at him. The group made their way down to the barn to check it out for themselves, Shane confirmed their fears.

"You cannot tell me you're alright with this."

"No I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land."

"This is our lives!" Shane bellowed out.

"Lower your voice," Glenn keeping relatively calm.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug," Andrea took Shane's side.

Shane was pacing back and forth like a mad man, "It ain't right. Not remotely. Okay, we've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time."

"We can't go."

"Why, Rick? Why?"

"Because my daughter is still out there."

"Okay," Shane huffed, "Car—okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"We're not leaving Sophia behind."

"I'm close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago."

"You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll."

Daryl flung his arms towards Shane, "You don't what the hell you're talking about."

"I'm just saying what needs to be said," Rick threw his arm in between the two men arguing, "You get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours."

"Shane, stop!"

"Let me tell you something else, man," Daryl inched towards Shane getting ready to deck him, "If she was alive out there and saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction."

Rick forced himself between the two again when Daryl had tried to go after Shane, everyone shouting, Alex stepped in front of Daryl trying to separate the two even more.

"Back off!" Rick told Shane.

Shane looked directly at Lori, pushing her hands away from him, "Keep your hands off me."

"Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out."

"What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane shouted at his best friend.

"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land."

"Hershel sees those things in there as people—sick people—his wife, his stepson."

"You knew?"

"Yesterday I talked to Hershel," Dale.

"And you waited the night?"

"I thought we could survive one more night. We did." Dale's attention went back to Rick, "I was waiting till this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one."

"The man is crazy, Rick. If Hershel thinks those things are alive or no!"

The doors on the barn begun pushing forward, the chains rattled and the walkers growled, causing everyone to step back from the barn. Daryl had pushed Alex behind him to protect her in case the walkers might bust through at any moment. Once everyone stood quietly, the walkers stopped pushing on the doors and they made their way back to camp.

Daryl walked the same pace as Alex behind the group and whispered to her, "Don't go near the barn, you hear me?" She simply nodded at his command. He walked past her and went into the stable, Carol chased after Daryl. She sighed and found a seat near where the fire would normally be. She rubbed her temples, trying to calm herself down. When she looked up again, she saw Daryl storming out of the stable, clutching his wounded side.

She followed Daryl staying a few feet behind him to a pond on the land with a dock. He stood at the end of the dock, hands on his hips, Alex could tell he was chewing on his lip furiously. He took off his boots and put his feet in the water. She debated for a while whether or not to go to him, then her feet started to move as if under a spell. She stepped on to the deck, causing Daryl to look back at her. She slipped off her boots, socks and pulled her pant legs and set next to him, mimicking his motions in the water. They didn't make a sound except for their feet swaying in the water, only looked ahead at the lake. Alex felt a brush on her hand, seeing Daryl's hand close to hers, she placed it on his and smiled at the scene. Daryl looked at their hands, her skin was soft, warm and kind. She began rubbing her thumb on the back of his hand to comfort him. He removed his hand from under hers, only to place it once more this time their finger tangled in one other. His actions had startled her at first, but she relaxed into him. She placed her head gently on his shoulder, placing a soft kiss on his arm. They didn't move for a long time, until something had caught Daryl's eye he turned his head to find a Cherokee Rose along the bank of the pond. Alex lifted her head from his should as he carefully untangled his hand from hers and got to his feet to turn around, still clutching his side and help Alex to hers. They slipped on their boots, and walked back to camp, giving each other a silent good-bye to another as they parted ways. Daryl took Carol to the pond to show her the where the Cherokee rose had grown, apologizing for lashing out at her earlier that day. And for the time being, it was a good day.

Alex had found her way to the house to play a game of chess with Carl, Beth and Patricia when Andrea, T-Dog, Daryl and Carol had come up to the house all wondering where Rick was and why he wasn't looking for Sophia.

Daryl lashed out again, "Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail. Oh, here we go." He spotted Shane walking up to the house with the bag of guns around his shoulder and a rifle in his hand.

"What's all this?"

"You with me, man?" Shane handed Daryl the rifle, Daryl taking it. "Time to grow up. You already got yours?" looking back at Andrea.

"Yeah. Where's Dale?"

"He's on his way."

T-Dog took the gun Shane handed him, "Thought we couldn't carry."

"We can and we have to. Look, it was one thing sitting around her picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't. How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Shane giving another rifle to Glenn who reluctantly took it from him. "That's it. Can you shoot?"

"Can you stop?" Maggie didn't want this to happen, "You do this, you out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight."

"We have to stay, Shane," Carl stepping from the porch, Lori running in asking what was going on.

Shane cocked his weapon, "We ain't going anywhere, okay?"

Alex just eyed Daryl who chewed his lip and looked away. He didn't care if she disapproved; he was going to protect her no matter what.

"Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He—well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia, am I right?" Shane took his handgun and walked over to Carl crouching handing over his gun, "Huh? Now I want you to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it."

Lori stepped in front of Carl, "Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make."

T-Dog yelled, "Oh shit." Everyone whipped around to see Rick, Hershel and Jimmy leading two walkers from the forest. Shane sprinted towards them, everyone following.

"You kidding me? Do you see? Do you see what they're holding onto?"

"I see who I'm holding onto!" Hershel replied.

"No, man, you don't!"

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk," Rick struggled with the walker.

"What you want to talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them 'cause all they do, they kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us. If we don't—"

Rick tried to get his friend to calm down, "Shane, shut up!"

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane pulled out his gun and shot at the walker Hershel held on. "That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?" Shane lifted his weapon and shot again twice, "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" He shot two more times at the walker.

"Shane, enough!" Rick begged his friend to stop this.

"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough," Shane walked up to the walker and shot it in the head, Hershel fell to the ground with it in disbelief.

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" He looked directly at Carol, Alex wrapped her arms around her as if she could cushion the blow. "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us. Enough. Rick, it ain't like it was before! Now if y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." Shane ran to the barn door.

Daryl shot a quick, apologetic look towards Alex and then Carol then back on to the scene before them. Shane busted the doors open of the barn. Pretty much everyone begged him not to do it. The first walker made its way through and everyone lined up to take their shots, at the walkers flowing out of the barn. Rick just stood back as the group shot the walkers coming from the barn, rage filled his eyes as Shane shot the walker he was holding onto. It was a loud firework of gun shots, the shots stopped as they witnessed the last walker drop.

Everyone stood in shock, then they heard growling coming from the barn once again. Slowly they saw the small feet shuffle from the barn, it was a little girl that had been bitten on the neck. Everyone just stared at her and Carol began sobbing in Alex's arms. Then it hit her, this is Sophia. This is Carol's daughter. She was bitten.

Carol escaped from Alex's arm running forward, "Sophia? Sophia!" Daryl had caught her in his arms and they fell to the ground, Carol still sobbing, "Oh no. Sophia. Sophia." Alex walked towards them, her heart breaking a little more at each of Carol's cries, she crouched down and rubbed Carol's back trying to sooth her, but instead crying with her.

Rick walked forward towards the little girl, no one could bring themselves to take her down. But Rick took out his revolver and BANG, she fell.

Carol's sobs became even more uncontrollable and Daryl tried to lift her to her feet, she was as limp as her daughter, "Don't look. Don't look." She pushed Daryl off of her and ran towards the RV once he got her up.

Beth's cries where now audible, she went to her mother's corpse, it grabbed at her the group ran to her rescue. Andrea putting a pick axe through her dead mother's skull. Alex and Daryl just stood there as the rest of the group went up to the house. She looked at him, he scoffed and stormed off to comfort Carol.

Andrea, T-Dog and some others came back down with blankets and they started digging graves and wrapping the bodies of the loved ones, Alex helped dig the graves. Her mind bounced back between thoughts of Carol, still trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened. The little girl, Sophia, who Daryl tried his hardest to find, was right underneath their noses this whole time. She felt sick. She couldn't imagine losing a child in that way.

The graves were finished and Lori and Alex made their way to the RV to get Carol, finding Daryl sitting on the counter with her.

Lori couldn't look at Carol, "They're ready."

Carol shook her head, "Why?"

"Because that's not your little girl," Daryl starred anger in his eyes.

"That's not my little girl. That's—that's some other thing. My Sophia was alone in the woods, and all this time I thought. She didn't cry herself to sleep, she didn't go hungry she didn't try to find her way back. Sophia died a long time ago."

Daryl just stared intensely at the grieving woman, his face snarled and he walked out of the RV, bumping Alex on his way to the door, Lori followed Daryl out the door.

Alex moved to the table, and sat across from Carol and sighed deeply, "I know you don't want to hear this now, Carol, but I'm so sorry," she couldn't bring herself to look Carol in the eyes, "As mother's, we always carry this hope for our children, and sometimes it's ripped away from us."

Carol looked at Alex, Alex looked back up at Carol with watery eyes, "You got to meet your daughter, raise her, she was taken from you too soon but at least you got to hear her call you mommy."

Alex got up and walked out of the RV, wiping the tears off her face. Daryl was leaning on the side of the RV looking up at her with questioning eyes. She looked over at him when she realized what he had overheard she stopped in her tracks, mouth partly open.

"Alex," he begun to say in a low, apologetic tone, but she held up her hand to stop him and walked off towards Sophia's new resting place. Daryl followed her keeping his distance from the grieving woman.

Once at the grave Alex kept her distance from Daryl, she stood by Glenn and T-Dog while everyone else began to crowd around. Everyone paid their respect in silence. Alex felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Glenn. She placed her hand on top of his and gave him a weak smile when she noticed everyone else leave and she decided to stay for a while longer. When she got back to the camp she saw the tent behind her own was gone.

**AN: I decided to break this up in two parts, and working on refining the second one tonight, should be updated in the next few days. Thank you all so much once again, really. I'm really excited to show you guys the next two chapters once I finish them. _Also, I'm going to be doing a lot of editing to the chapters I have already posted, if you have any troubles with losing your place or anything, please message me and I'll help you figure it out! (: This chapter may be included in the changes*_**


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